Archive for the ‘World Affairs’ Category

The recent UN climate change report wake-up call The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued on Sunday October 7 an urgent call to action to governments all around the world: In its report, the IPCC stated that major changes are needed within the next decade to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degree …

The real resistance is to protect our only planet Right after Labor Day, with most of the country coming together in memorial tribute to John McCain, the U.S. political environment reached fever pitch with the publication of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, claiming that members of the Trump administration were working together …

A primer on Dodd-Frank, through a simple Q&A Why was Dodd Frank passed? The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed by Congress, and signed by president Obama on July 21st, 2010, to stabilize our banking and financial system, and prevent a repeat of the disastrous 2008 financial crisis, which …

Is Universal Health Care Socialism? The November midterms elections are approaching, and one of the major topics is health care. Democrats are campaigning on retaining Obamacare, in many cases advocating that we move towards universal health care. That would be pure socialism, retort Republicans, who would rather repeal the Affordable Care Act as they attempted …

Voters want decisive change towards a fairer type of capitalism (Letter published in the 8/31/18 edition of the Financial Times) I liked Martin Sandbu’s article, “Nordic lessons for today’s socialists” (August 29), and its compelling description of the Nordic model. I agree with him when he mentions Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and …

Enjoying a Book Tour Before writing my book I envisioned a book tour as a series of stops in bookstores across many cities…Well, I have enjoyed a couple of such stops, and even a book party at a restaurant, courtesy of neighbors who are also dear friends. Mostly, though, it has been written commentary, …

The World Cup Is Over, Bravo Les Bleus! The 2018 World Cup is over, with a fitting final for this great tournament: France 4 x 2 Croatia had more goals in regulation time than any final since 1958 (Brazil 5 x 2 Sweden). Mbappé scored Les Bleus’ fourth goal, the French team’s young sensation being …

We spend almost $10,000 per year per capita in healthcare, about twice as much as the average developed economy. However, we get little for what we spend: in terms of major health outcomes, such as infant mortality or life expectancy, we rank below most other developed nations. Why? Among other reasons, complexity explains why we …